N.C. State’s chapter of Alpha Delta Pi held a 5K race on Centennial Campus Sunday, April 25 to benefit the Ronald McDonald House in Durham.

“This race has been our major philanthropy event benefiting the community for the past five years,” Jessica Swanner, ADPi’s philanthropy chair, said.

According to the Ronald McDonald website, The Ronald McDonald House of Durham provides families a place to stay while their child receives medical treatment at Duke Children’s Hospital, as well as other local health centers.

ADPi has been hosting “Ron-A-Thon” for the past five years to help benefit the Ronald McDonald House through ADPi’s national philanthropy event, A Lion’s Share Challenge.

Events through the Lion’s Share Challenge are designed to raise money for The Ronald McDonald House Charities all across the nation, Swanner said.

“The event had a great turnout despite the threat of rain. We had 243 registered and it was great to see everyone in the community come out and support such a great cause—from athletes, to students and children,” Swanner said.

According to Sarah Gibbons, the fundraising chair for the event, “We love holding events that are fun and that benefit the community at the same time. ‘Ron-A-Thon’ has been a tradition that ADPi really enjoys carrying out.”

The event only cost $15 to register and everyone received a free t-shirt sporting the

“Ron-A-Thon” logo, Gibbons said. “This year we even had the Cary Super Skippers come out for the finale of the event and everyone really enjoyed their performance,” Swanner said.

Gibbons said that the Ronald McDonald House in Durham worked very closely with them during the process of planning the event and the local McDonalds generously donated apple dippers, water and monetary donations. 

“There is so much that goes into one event and it really calls for a lot of helping hands. We couldn’t have done this without everyone’s help,” Gibbons said.

As one of the fundraising chairs, freshman Jessica Russel was also very pleased with the excellent turnout of the event.

“Being freshman, Sarah and I had never helped out with the ‘Ron-A-Thon’ event before, so doing it from scratch was very rewarding,” Russel said.

The sisters of ADPi also visit the local Ronald McDonald House in Durham weekly to assist in serving dinners and planning activities for the children, Russel said.

“It’s a wonderful place to volunteer and the Ronald McDonald Houses are always looking for new groups of people willing to dedicate their time to these children and their families,” Swanner said.

Swanner said she felt “Ron-A-Thon was a fulfilling experience because of all the overwhelming local support in the area.”

“It was rewarding to see more people than just ADPi supporting the cause because we do go to the Ronald McDonald House in Durham every week. We like sharing with other people that there is a need and that everyone can do their part to help the Ronald McDonald House,” Swanner said.

Swanner’s favorite part of the event was being able to stand on the sidelines at the end of the race as people charged across the finish line.

“Some of us could not run because we were busy organizing the event but we were lucky to see the faces of those running across the finish line. You could tell that they genuinely felt so good on the inside and so accomplished,” Swanner said. “It was really amazing to see how many people were willing to help out and support the event. The staff at the McDonald’s off Western even wore our ‘Ron-A-Thon’ t-shirts to further promote it,” Gibbons said.

Swanner contended that the event was about more than accomplishing a race.

“Everyone who participated accomplished something even bigger— knowing that they were helping children and their families at Ronald McDonald Houses all over the nation,” Swanner said.